


Apparent Wind

by Mendeia



Series: What Beyond (The Temple Steps Alight) [10]
Category: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, The Sentinel
Genre: Adventure, Crossover, Gen, Oneshot, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:39:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4861589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendeia/pseuds/Mendeia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Definition: The apparent wind is the wind experienced by an observer in motion and is the relative velocity of the wind in relation to the observer. (Retrieved from Wikipedia on 8/22/14)</p>
<p>Even on Palm Key, trouble magnets can still find a little adventure to keep their vacations interesting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apparent Wind

**Author's Note:**

> My beta tells me that this oneshot reminds her of an episode of Jonny Quest with the focus on the fun rather than the adventure. It wasn't my intent, but it works!
> 
> Enjoy!

"Okay. Somebody remind me why we set up shop in Cascade instead of here?" Blair sighed blissfully, stretching on the hammock.

"You were the one who made the argument about how Cascade was my territory," Jim pointed out.

"Oh yeah. Bad pick, man. This is _way_ better."

Jim laughed. "Can't argue that, Chief."

Jim looked out over the blue water, the cloudless sky, the pale sand, and breathed in with deep contentment. Palm Key was a perfect retreat for an exhausted Sentinel, that was for sure. Not only was it purely lovely and tropically warm – it was also a completely private island. Jim didn't have to worry about sudden city noises or the smells and presence of hundreds of thousands of people all pressed in around him. He always relaxed when he and Blair took a fishing weekend away in the mountains, too, out in nature and away from the city, but the abject peace and solitude of Palm Key was downright luxurious.

Of course, the accommodations were pretty nice, too. Jim closed his eyes and let his senses wander. Beside him, Blair was half-asleep in a hammock hung between two leafy palm trees, his glasses and a book on his chest and steadily slipping to one side. A hundred yards behind them, Jim was aware of Race and Benton and Simon getting drinks from the specific-to-tropical-and-vacation-beverages refrigerator on the house's broad patio. The house itself was alight in a happy babble of conversation as the kids changed into bathing suits. Even without the full lab attached to the house, the place was almost the size of the mansion at the Quest compound, easily accommodating the eight kids from the Chancery throughout the bungalow.

"Hey Jim?" Blair mumbled sleepily.

"Hmm?"

"Do you feel bad that we didn't invite Brown and Rafe?"

"Nope," Jim said cheerfully. "They need more time at SELF anyway and somebody's got to hold down the fort at the station."

"Good," Blair yawned. "Me either." And promptly fell asleep.

Jim chucked but rose from his own beach lounge to spread a towel over his Guide – Blair might be warm and comfortable now, but without a little shelter the sun would find ways to burn him through the palm leaves. He turned in time to accept the cold drink from Simon, who smiled indulgently at the sleeping anthropologist and set his drink in the sand nearby in case Blair decided to wake back up.

"Need a hand?" Jim offered Race, the latter hauling several more chairs and towels in a bulky pile.

"Nah, I got it," he grinned, dumping his armload to take his own drink from Benton. "Nice to have some guests out here for once," he commented. "Feels more like a vacation when it's not just me and Benton, and half the time he winds up in the lab anyway!"

"Not this trip," Benton shook his head. "If I so much as set foot in there, Hadji and Jessie will be right behind me, and that would spoil things. I'm taking a vacation in order to make sure they do the same for once."

"What, no adventures?" Jim teased. "No alien conspiracies or magical carpets?"

"Not this time," Race shook his head. "Just us and Palm Key all to ourselves."

"I'm glad to hear it," Simon said, settling into his chair having finished setting up the others. "I could do with a quiet rest and no more running about like those kids."

As if summoned, the eight students appeared, racing to the beach and yelling to one another in a cacophony that was as bright as the sunlight. Jonny, Jessie, and Kaimi broke off from the rest to head for where Jim had already carried several surf-boards down from the bungalow, and within moments the three were out in the water and heading to where the reef that sheltered the cove produced the best waves. At the beach itself, Lai, Eric, and Ngama waded more gingerly into the sea, cheering on the other three. Bandit was a strong swimmer, but he opted not to follow his boy to the reef, instead paddling between the three in shallower waters.

Simon looked around. "Where's Daryl and Hadji?"

Benton smiled. "Up there," he pointed.

The beach on this side of the house was broad and flat for the most part, but there was one area where the headland rose up in a small cliff over a deeper portion of the cove. It was only a few yards above the water, but the real advantage of the spot was a small contraption Benton had built many years prior.

The three on the beach had paused in their hollering to turn in the same direction, and the three surfboarders were floating in the shallower waters above the reef, also watching.

Suddenly Hadji's voice rang out in a great cry. With a running start, he charged off the headland. In midair, he caught the trapeze that hung out over the water like a mid-air swing. When his hands closed on the bar, the whole thing picked up his momentum and swung in a broad arc over the bay. At the apex of the swing, Hadji released the bar, tucking his body into a ball to somersault twice in the air before cleanly diving into the water below.

He surfaced to cheering and waved.

"Pretty good," Jim commented.

"Took him three summers to perfect that move," Race said. "And it took Jonny and Jessie another year to copy him."

"There's also a retractable diving board and a tire swing and a long rope and a few other things up there," Benton explained. "I built it to be the Swiss Army Knife of diving platforms."

And indeed, the trapeze had retracted into the cover of the palm trees, replaced by a broad diving board. A moment later, Daryl appeared on the end of it. He waved to his dad before turning to stare out at the water.

Jim dialed up his vision to catch the look of concentration on Daryl's face. Then he began to bounce, first just a little to get a feel for the springiness of the board, then higher and higher. On the fifth bounce, he shot laterally into the air, arching into a perfect dive. He hit the water with almost no splash at all and his housemates roared their approval.

But he didn't come up right way. Jim hid a smile as Simon started to sit up, peering at the water for his son. Just before he could really start to worry, though, Daryl's dark head popped out of the water – right next to Jessie. She was clearly not expecting it and flailed in the water with a cry of surprise before promptly splashing Daryl and starting a small splashing war out over the reef.

Hadji was making his way towards the beach; this time when he emerged from the sea, all three who had previously been more timid followed him, taking turns leaping off the headland either by way of the diving board, the trapeze, or the rope swing. Only once did Hadji demonstrate the least-used of the diving platform's extensions, something Jonny called the "slingshot." It was a solid disc upon which Hadji stood, bracing himself. When the lever was yanked, the disc would snap out of the tower like a clay pigeon in skeet-shooting. It remained airborne for a few long moments, hovering in the air, before its trajectory began to decay under Hadji's weight, at which point Hadji dived off and the disc was retracted on a cord.

"The only one who makes that thing look good is Jessie," Race commented. Beside him, Bandit yipped cheerfully – many years before, the dog had learned not to join anyone near the diving tower if he didn't want to be flung into the water from a height himself, so he was content to chase the stick Race obligingly threw into the waves for him.

"Hadji didn't look too bad," Jim said.

"Hadji only ever runs it at about half power, though," Benton explained. "They don't use it often because it's unpredictable. A little shift of the wind and the thrower might send them careening off to the side or they might slide off it too soon. Jessie's advantage is the difference in her weight and center of gravity. But even then, it's a little more dangerous than it is entertaining."

"Why did you build it, then?" Simon frowned.

Race shrugged. "You've been around long enough to know, Simon – we live on the line between fun and danger."

"And," Benton said, "to use the old excuse: it seemed like a good idea at the time. But don't worry. Hadji won't unlock it for the others. It takes practice to use safely."

Simon was shaking his head and Jim laughed. "Come on, Simon. Which of us went on a weekend vacation and wound up in the middle of a drug operation?"

"Even so, I don't make a practice of confusing foolishness and recklessness with relaxation!" he replied.

"Maybe you should," came Blair's sleepy, mumbly voice from the hammock. "Sometimes you need an adventure more than a break." And then he snorted and shifted and was apparently asleep again.

Simon rolled his eyes. But as the other jumpers opted for the slightly safer options and as the surfers got up on their boards – Daryl retreating to join the jumpers – he relaxed again _. If the worst trouble we'll get into this time is that crazy contraption, we're probably doing okay_.

-==OOO==-

After the morning of watersports and beach time, everyone retreated into the bungalow for a late lunch followed by almost the entire party opting to take a nap. Only Blair, who had slept all morning on the beach, Ngama, who had done only a few jumps as he was not a very confident swimmer, Lai, who didn't believe in taking naps, and Hadji were left when everyone else found a comfy couch, hammock, or bed for a few hours.

"Well, since we've got some time," Blair said, "Hadji, would you mind showing us the rest of the island?"

"Certainly," he smiled, stepping into some sandals by the door. "As you have already seen the house and the helicopter landing pad and the cove, let us head towards the other end of the island. It is only slightly more than two miles in length and about half that in width, so our exploration should be complete well before the others wake."

Hadji and Blair exchanged grins – on an island much larger, or populated by more than just their party, their Sentinels might have stronger feelings about whether or not they wandered off, even though they were perfectly competent. But here, miles of ocean between the island and any other human being, Jonny and Jim were sleeping with a profound sense of secure peace so potent their Guides could feel it.

Even so, Ngama quietly promised himself he would watch over the two Guides in his care.

Hadji led his friends along his favorite route, beginning at the cove beach by the house and moving southwards along the sea. Beyond the cove, much of the island's edge was smooth with few trees or any plants above scrub level. But at the far end, where the island came down to a sharp point, the shoreline vanished in a thick swamp of mangroves. Hadji led the way to a rough path, partially constructed of planks braced between the mangrove roots.

"Come," he said. "Perhaps we will see a crocodile."

Ngama cast out his senses automatically, long-since familiar with watching for the slender-snouted crocodiles of his homeland. Though the mangrove itself was only a few hundred yards across, that was plenty of habitat to support a few crocodiles, and he was unsurprised to sense them, their slowly-beating hearts sounding in the waters below. As Hadji led the way, Lai behind him and Blair eagerly looking around as he moved nimbly from tree to tree, Ngama enhanced his senses even more. He would not want his friends to be ambushed by a crocodile, and he would certainly not want to face down his fellow Sentinels if he allowed a crocodile to get too close to either Guide.

When they were near to one, Ngama stopped to point it out to the others.

"It's so…pale," Lai said. "I have never seen a crocodile that light in color before. Is it albino?"

"No," Hadji shook his head. "This variety is often a strangely pale grey compared to their relatives in other places. They blend in well on the sandy beaches, but with this mangrove here, they rarely go to the trouble. Though, we did wake one morning as children to find a juvenile crocodile sunning itself on the patio! Bandit has never come near this part of the island unless carried, and for good reason. I believe he has developed a sense for when we will be heading in this direction, which is why he did not join us."

"And the fact that he would rather be cuddling with Jonny under a palm tree at the moment has nothing to do with it?" Lai asked with a smile.

"Of course not."

Watching the crocodile hover beneath the roots of the mangrove off to the side, Blair launched into an excited description of ancient Central American cultures and their myths and practices regarding crocodiles. Ngama knew it was impolite not to listen, but he could not help but be drawn away. He could not identify what sense was speaking to him so strongly, but he knew better than to ignore it. So he left the path quietly, moving to the trees and stepping between roots lithely as he went deeper into the mangrove.

It was only a dozen or so yards in that he found what he was looking for.

"What is it?" came Hadji's voice, quietly. Ngama turned to find that he had been followed.

"I am not sure," Ngama replied.

"Are you all right?" Hadji made the last jump to join Ngama on a broad root and put a hand on the Sentinel's shoulder. "You were in a very trance-like state for a moment."

"I am fine," Ngama assured him. "But I felt…"

"You were drawn to it," Blair said. "It's happened to Jim, too. You have your senses dialed up, don't you?"

Ngama nodded. "I was watching for crocodiles."

"Well," Lai appeared, moving a little more stiffly than those who had spent a great deal of time in wilder places, "then clearly there is something here worth perceiving. What have you found?"

"This," Ngama ran his hand over the stone.

Hadji nodded. "I remember this well, though I have not ventured here in some years. Jonny and I have always called it the 'headstone' because it reminds us both of a grave marker."

"Yeah, it does," Blair squinted at the solid piece of stone sticking up out of the roots of a truly ancient mangrove tree, its base far below the level of the water. "And there's no way it's natural, either. I haven't seen any stone like this anywhere on the island. I guess a hurricane could have carried it here, or else it was dropped off intentionally."

"That was Doctor Quest's conclusion as well," Hadji said. "At one time there may have been writing on it, but it has proved too worn away for us to determine."

"Sure, but we have an advantage now that you previously lacked," Lai said. "Ngama is a Sentinel. Maybe he can make it out."

"I can try," he offered. Enhancing his sight even farther, Ngama also ran his fingers lightly over the weathered stone, his senses working together to draw out the hidden marks that time and water had long since dulled.

After a long examination, he looked up. "There is definitely something here, but...it seems strange to me."

"Can you write it down?" Blair asked eagerly, passing forward a notebook that was ever-present in one of his pockets.

Ngama quickly copied the letters as they were written. When he passed the notebook to where the other three now crowded around the ancient mangrove, Lai reacted immediately.

"It is English, but a very, very old English!" She ran her own fingers over the notebook as though reading the words that way. "Well, not this bit at the top," she clarified. "I cannot be completely sure, but I believe that is Irish or Gaelic. I don't know them, but I have seen them in my father's books many times. But this," she tapped the rest of the page, "is English as it was written several hundred years ago, complete with some pretty strange spellings."

"That would be the right time in this area of the world," Blair considered. "There was a lot of commerce here, and especially in the early 1700's when piracy was big, the English were also fighting to maintain a foothold against all the other nations claiming everything in sight."

"Read it, please," Ngama requested.

Lai read the words slowly and clearly. "To my fair mother. May ye lighthouse prove your freedom from men and chains. Here lies ye body of Anne Bonny, deceased October 1724."

"Anne Bonny!" Hadji's eyes widened. "The pirate?"

"You know of her?" Lai asked.

Hadji nodded. "Yes, it is a famous story and one of Jessie's favorites. Anne Bonny was a pirate, one of the few women who became known as such. She was quite brave and apparently very skilled in battle as well. She was captured along with another woman who was disguised as a man, and both were to be executed along with their pirate captain in 1720. But they claimed to be pregnant and were allowed to live. However, Anne vanished from custody, never to be seen again."

"Well, then, clearly she survived to have the child," Ngama said. "And that person buried Anne Bonny somewhere in the area? What can it mean by 'ye lighthouse?'"

"Come!" Hadji's face was lit by an excitement rarely seen in the usually serene young man. "I have a suspicion I may be able to answer that question."

They carefully picked their way back to the regular path through the mangroves, Hadji leading the way and the others rushing as much as they dared. Blair did lose his footing at one point, but Ngama dived to catch him before his foot went unwisely into the water where a crocodile might strike. As the mangroves thinned out, a rocky area came into view.

"This whole area is mostly reef," Hadji gestured, "and _that_ , I believe, could be our lighthouse."

The water was choppy as it moved over hidden sandbars and other underwater irregularities, and the surf crashed at the base of a rock formation a few hundred yards off shore.

"Isn't it just part of the reef?" Lai asked, squinting.

"No," Hadji shook his head. "It was once a much taller structure like a spire of stone, but it collapsed in a hurricane several years ago. Doctor Quest has often said that this rock formation was what inspired him to add a lighthouse to the Maine complex."

Ngama studied the area. "If a very great storm appeared, it is possible that the wind and waters could dislodge something from there and carry it this way. And once caught up in the mangroves, it would naturally migrate inwards with the tides over time."

"Sounds good to me!" Blair grinned. He pulled off his shirt and stepped out of his sandals. "So, who's coming with me?"

"The waters here are not so calm as they are at the cove," Hadji warned. "I have made the swim before, of course, and the tide is fairly low, but we should still exercise caution."

"I don't think I'm a strong enough swimmer to handle it," Lai said. She looked at where the waters crashed and churned. "Maybe if we waited until the tide dropped even more?"

"It will not go much lower than this," Hadji shook his head. "But please do not make the attempt if you do not feel comfortable."

Ngama was torn. On the one hand, he wanted to go, not only for curiosity's sake, but to watch over the pair of Guides. On the other, he was not even as skilled at swimming as Lai and might prove to be a liability.

"Don't sweat it," Blair smiled at him. "You can be our lookout. If you see something, just holler. You'll be better able to spot trouble from here than in the water, anyway."

Ngama nodded and took up a position on a small rise while Hadji and Blair stripped out of everything but the bathing suits they wore. Hadji meticulously unwound his turban, folding it neatly and setting it atop his shirt. Then they were both away into the water and swimming smoothly against the waves.

"He's not supposed to do that, you know," Lai said as she joined Ngama.

"Who is not supposed to do what?"

"Hadji isn't supposed to take his turban off unless he has some other covering for his hair. It's part of his religion."

Ngama considered for a moment. "I have never asked him of his beliefs. Have you?"

"Oh yes," Lai said. "We have had several interesting discussions along those lines. I understand he found his faith while a child in Calcutta, so I would guess perhaps he developed the habit then, but I do not know why he has continued it now that he could easily afford the additional covering."

"Knowing him as I do, I imagine it is not chance or lack of devotion. It is likely a reason of his own that has more to do with his desire to recall his roots and maintain his perspective." Ngama had not taken his eyes off the two Guides but now he held up a hand. "One moment, please."

He took in a deep breath. " _BEWARE ON YOUR LEFT_!"

Out in the surf, Hadji and Blair paused, then began to swim slightly more towards the right.

"What's there?" Lai asked.

"A very rocky reef, close enough to the surface that they would likely be cut on it if they tried to swim over it."

Lai nudged him with a smile. "Good thing we've got you on lookout."

-==OOO==-

Blair pulled himself up on the rock, pushing off with his feet to keep from scraping his legs all down the barnacled surface. "Looked smaller from back there," he grunted.

Hadji, also climbing onto the low sea stack, smiled. "It is our relative position that changes our understanding, for that which is does not change by our motion."

"You've got water in your ears," Blair said. "That one almost made sense."

"Perhaps you are growing in wisdom," Hadji replied.

Blair shook his head. "Let's go look at this lighthouse of yours." Stepping carefully on the wet and sharp rock, he moved towards what had, from the shore, appeared to just be a mound of stone – a part of the rock formation. But now that they were closer, Blair could clearly see that there were several large rocks broken apart rather than a single formation.

"When it stood," Hadji said, "it was at the south end. It appears that it was destroyed and tipped over as a tree in the forest."

"If a rock pillar falls on an island and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Blair smirked.

"I should think, in the case of all this stone, a very big sound." Hadji stepped around the large rock pieces towards the southern area of the rock. "I believe any answers we will find will be here."

Blair shivered, the water on his skin cooling suddenly and leaving him a little breathless. Something at the edge of his awareness prickled. "Uh…Hadji?"

Hadji did not turn around, but he spoke quietly and intently. "I know. I too feel it."

Blair said, carefully and deliberately, "Ngama? Maybe you'd better – "

That was as far as he got.

-==OOO==-

Jim's eyes snapped open. The cry from outside was clearly panicked. "Jim! Jonny! Doctor Quest! Everybody! Wake up!"

Jim surged to his feet, almost crashing into Jonny who suddenly appeared from the next room down the hall. They didn't even need eye contact to communicate, racing towards the large, open doors that led to the beach. Jim spared a small part of his attention to sweep the area and growled. Not including himself (or Bandit), there should have been twelve heartbeats in or near the house. He could only hear seven.

"Jim! Jonny! Hurry!"

The pair of Sentinels hit the patio just as Lai came sprinting around the edge house. Jim managed to get to a stop and caught the girl in his arms.

"Lai, what's wrong? What's going on?" he asked.

The Chinese-British young woman, normally so poised, was breathing heavily and her face was torn with worry. "They…something's wrong. Ngama's zoning and…Blair and Hadji…"

"Where are they?" Jonny demanded. He became aware of the rest of the house rousing behind him. Simon, who had been napping on the porch, was already on his feet and calling for Kaimi.

"The…the lighthouse. Near the mangroves."

Jonny didn't waste time – he just started to run. Jim handed Lai off to Simon and took off after him, the Sentinels running and straining with all their senses for some hint of their Guides.

Two minutes later, they caught another sound, dialing their hearing down quickly as Race appeared with a dune buggy. "Get on!" he shouted. Kaimi was sitting beside him, so Jim and Jonny grabbed onto the roll-bars and perched on the back. Race took off down the beach.

"The others will be behind us as soon as they get organized," Race said, "but I thought you three probably wanted to be there first."

Jim didn't answer, but he was frowning darkly. _If Sandburg's managed to get himself in trouble in less than an hour on a mostly-deserted tropical island, I'm locking him up at SELF for life – he needs to be in a bubble made of titanium to keep the trouble out_.

The dune buggy was able to quickly navigate the roadless beaches, and with Race's reckless driving they covered the distance in what seemed like only a few too-long moments.

"There!" Jonny shouted, spotting Ngama on the beach. Out at the rock in the water, things were not so clear.

Kaimi was out of the dune buggy even before Race had stopped, catching her feet under her and scrambling to her Sentinel. She saw that he was deep in a zone and spared half a moment to thank Lai for her quick thinking. All members of SELF had training on what to do if a Sentinel was zoning and couldn't be roused – they needed to get the Sentinel to a safe spot and sit them down to prevent falling over and being hurt. Lai had actually gotten Ngama all the way to the ground and had borrowed Blair's pile of clothing to put under his head.

"Ngama," Kaimi whispered, gently running her fingers through his thick, coarse hair and down to his cheeks. "Come back to me, Sentinel. Listen to my voice. You must focus on something else. Please, Ngama. Find me." She laid a feather-light kiss on his lips.

Ngama shuddered under her hands and blinked. "Kaimi?" Then his eyes widened. "Hadji! Blair!"

He surged to his feet, Kaimi at his elbow and they rushed to where Race had stopped beside Jim and Jonny.

"What's happening?" Race asked.

"I don't even know," Jim said lowly.

"Do not try to listen," Ngama said. "You will be lost."

Jonny shot him an angry look. "What are they doing out there?"

"It is a story too long for this moment," Ngama said. "But I believe…perhaps whatever it is may be over."

"I think you're right," Jim said.

"Okay," Race held up his hands. "Just tell me, you guys of the crazy good vision. Were we seeing somebody else out on that rock with them? And some kind of localized windstorm? Or was that just me?"

"No, we saw it, too," Jonny said.

"Oh good. Otherwise I'd have to have Benton get my eyes checked."

Jim frowned at Race's casual attitude. But before he could call the man on it, he heard Blair shouting from the rock.

"Sorry if we scared you! We're okay. We'll be on our way in just a minute. Just have to…figure this out. Don't worry!"

"'Don't worry,' he says," Jim grumbled. "Nearly gave us a heart attack."

"They don't seem hurt," Ngama observed.

"Yeah, but there was still a lady out there," Jonny protested. "A lady that isn't there now. A _ghost_ lady. Oh, and the winds. And…" He shivered and decided he didn't really feel like describing that eerie sound.

Blair and Hadji disappeared behind some rocks, though the Sentinels could hear them moving around. However, neither Guide was talking, confounding their attempts to determine what they were up to. By the time the pair dropped into the water and began swimming back to the shore, the rest of the group had arrived in an overland jeep.

"What is that thing following them?" Jim asked sharply.

"It's not alive," Ngama offered. "I believe they have tied it to Hadji's ankle, but I…"

"You too, huh?" Jim asked. Any time he tried to look too closely at the item, he felt like zoning.

"You guys are such worriers!" Blair yelled when they were just a few dozen yards out. "We're fine!"

"Ngama zoned!" Lai yelled back. "And you weren't answering me! Of course I went for help!" She crossed her arms. "Guides are stupid," she muttered.

Jonny snorted and Jim huffed in agreement.

"I know where you sleep," Kaimi warned her.

Jonny, tired of waiting for his Guide, charged into the water until he was standing up to his waist. "Hadj! What happened? Are you okay?"

"I am fine, my friend," Hadji said, collected as always. "Blair and I have merely…had our own small adventure."

"What did you find?" Jessie asked, darting forward. "Why did you go out there? There's nothing there."

"That is where we have been wrong for a great many years," Hadji replied with a smile.

Blair reached down and picked up a large glass jug, brown-colored and tightly stoppered with a cork. He produced it with a flourish. "A tale worthy of an ocean legend!" he declared.

Benton approached. "We should wait to open that until we're in the lab. Just in case. The contents could be delicate."

"Not this one," Blair said, and winked at Hadji. Hadji grinned brightly.

"Sandburg…" Jim growled, practically yanking his partner out of the surf and both scanning him for injury as well as glaring at him.

"The winds of time have delivered unto us an answer to an old mystery," Hadji said. "But only because at last we had the sense to understand it."

Simon buried his face in his hands. "Can't anybody get a straight answer out of the pair of them?"

Blair and Hadji exchanged another look and smiled smugly.

Race sighed. "Apparently not."

-==OOO==-

"So, when we found the stone lid of the sarcophagus and touched it, she appeared," Blair said, his hands waving as he illustrated the point. "She was so clear and strong. I think she might even have been a Guide when she was alive."

"Miss Anne Bonny thanked us for finding her at last. She had wished to prove her legacy once and for all, not just as the fearsome female pirate, but as the woman who bested the guards of Spanish Town and evaded all the combined forces of Port Royal to escape. And, of course, she kept a great deal of the wealth she and Calico Jack had stolen and was able to retrieve it to raise her son in comfort." Hadji sat back, gesturing to the pages Doctor Quest had carefully extracted from the jug. "These are her own words that she wished to be known."

"They will be," Benton looked amazed at the find of unexpected legacy. "And to think all this time she was there, but we never knew."

"It took a Sentinel to read the headstone." Lai smiled at Ngama.

"And it took the presence of a fully awakened Guide to draw her presence from its long rest," Ngama said.

"Does this happen everywhere you go?" Eric asked with a look at Jonny.

"Not really," Jonny shrugged.

"Oh yes it does!" Race and Jessie countered.

"I thought this was a vacation," Simon groaned. "No adventures. No danger."

"They did warn you that they don't know the difference," Jim pointed out. "And, all things considered, it wasn't really that dangerous."

"It could have been," Kaimi said suddenly. "Or are you going to tell me all ghosts are nice old Guide ladies?"

The sudden, awkward silence from the Quests confirmed her words.

Blair shrugged. "It's all a matter of perspective. For Jim and me, this is still a pretty restful vacation. No terrorists or serial killers or poachers or hit-men. So we're doing good so far!"

"Just a 280-year old ghost," Daryl laughed.

Meanwhile, Jim had pounced on his partner and was vigorously giving him a noogie.

"What? Man! Stop! Quit it! What'd I do?" Blair managed.

"Don't say things like that!" Jim said, grinning even as he kept up his attack. "Are you _asking_ the Sandburg Zone to manifest down here?"

"No!"

"Yeah, I'll believe that when I see it," Simon groaned. He decided this was a great time to grab another drink, just in case. "If you ruin my one tropical vacation in the last decade with your powers of chaos, I'll…find something awful to do to you, I promise!"

"Do not worry, Simon," Hadji smiled serenely. "Even should this trip go spectacularly awry, we can always come back another time."

"Yeah," Jonny grinned at his brother. "Maybe next time _you'll_ be the one to find a pirate ship! Maybe you'll have to duel a ghost or rescue a treasure or something!"

"Does that sort of thing really happen?" Jim paused in his torment of his Guide and looked up.

The Quests traded guilty looks again and everyone but Simon laughed.

"I'm never leaving Cascade again," he moaned. "It _never_ works out."


End file.
